


All Our Times Have Come

by Lanyare



Series: What's Done Cannot Be Undone [5]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: it doesn't go well, the first time taako has seen kravitz since wonderland
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 17:57:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14194518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanyare/pseuds/Lanyare
Summary: Maybe Taako could have opened a portal to any plane he wished, but he still felt he didn't have any choice in the matter. He had to see Kravitz again, one more time.





	All Our Times Have Come

**Author's Note:**

> Read the series starting with [The Prize of Our Own Survival](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13661730/chapters/31380558) if you haven't already, because otherwise this is going to be really weird for you.

When Taako touched that circle of black glass, he could have transformed it into anything. The power surging through him, barely contained and _begging_ to be used, would have let him do whatever he wanted in that moment, and all he needed was to make a connection to somewhere, _anywhere_ , and call up some reinforcements. Thinking of his comment to Merle he could've turned it into diamond, called Pan and Istus and whatever other gods chose to respond— in fact, that probably would've been the best reinforcements available to him. He could've turned it to emerald and had Joaquin help him in person. Fuck, he could've gone for ruby, Lup would've gotten a kick out of being backed up by some _serious_ fire power.

In that moment, though, none of those options even crossed his mind. As soon as his hands touched the glass his fears, his worries, all his thoughts and feelings that had been in a jumbled mess that got worse after Wonderland and exponentially worse after Lup told him what she'd seen through the rift to the Astral Plane, _everything_ combined to make it inevitable that glass turned immediately to deep sapphire. He had to see, he had to _know_ , even if...the worst happened.

As he now watches the shadows of Phandalin-that-was rise from the depths of the massive gemstone, _the worst_ is a fear that gnaws at him with every second, every breath, until he at last sees a figure appear, kneeling with one hand lowered for support and eyes wide, and with no hesitation Taako is running forward. He'd lost his hat in that rush of power as the planes were connected once more and he must look like a rumpled mess at this point, but he doesn't care, he doesn't care about that at all, _Kravitz_ is here and...well, not _alive_ , but _unharmed_ and that's enough.

He sees the reaper rise, looking about himself, at the sea of sapphire below and the darkness above, sees him turn until their eyes meet and Kravitz's face comes alive with surprise and then an instant later heartfelt relief, one hand lifting to reach toward him. And then— then, as Taako gets closer, the joy turns to shock and Kravitz's eyes flare scarlet, and for the space of a heartbeat his flesh melts away to show the stark skull beneath before he's flesh again but just staring, now shocked and...something else, something Taako can't quite read. Anger? Horror? Revulsion? All of the above?

Taako halts, the fear now pulsing through him so hard that he can feel his hands trembling. He wants to close that distance between them, aching to feel the reality of Kravitz's presence and affection, but— but he knows what he's done, what he _is_ now, and he doesn't deserve that. He never really did deserve Kravitz to begin with, not really, but now to see him, to be so very close to him and not dare to touch, it still fucking _hurts_.

"Taako, I—" Kravitz halts, his hand flexing at his side, opening and closing as though reaching for something and then changing his mind. "How did you— _what_ did you…"

Before he can finish _what did you do_ Taako flaps a hand to cut him off, trying desperately to put on a casual air, to keep his voice light, and only mostly succeeding. "Long story, uh, short— short story is I was rad and have magic powers and, and you...you're _okay_."

His voice cracks a little on the last word and he flinches, rushing on to try to cover for it. "I mean, I'd heard you were maybe in trouble, uh, with the— the whole, y'know, apocalypse happening, but you. You look good. And I…"

Cautiously, each step placed with careful precision, Kravitz moves closer as he speaks, one hand lifting toward him, and Taako's voice trails off as fingertips brush lightly against his cheek. He doesn't dare move, hardly dares to breathe, his eyes locked on Kravitz's face as the reaper's expression softens into something like regret. "Why?"

Accusation Taako could have dealt with, or anger or an immediate threat response. Anything but that single word, soft and sad and laden with other emotions he doesn't want to think about too hard right now. He shrugs, trying to be cool and casual, as though his chest doesn't feel like it's full of lead weights. "The last mission was a rough one, my man, like real fuckin' _bad_ , and— these, uh, a couple liches were holding the Relic and—"

" _Liches_?" Kravitz's hand freezes in more than one sense, growing both still and much colder to the touch, his eyes flaring brighter crimson. " _Two_ of them?"

"S'what I said, you gotta keep up." Despite the flippant response Taako finds himself no longer able to meet the reaper's eyes, his gaze instead shifting down and away, over one black-clad shoulder toward the towering columns of the Hunger. The view isn't much of an improvement, but at least that's something he's accustomed to, has seen a hundred times before, even if it's usually been from the deck of the Starblaster.

"Taako…" There's a pause, one in which someone else might have drawn a breath or sighed, but Kravitz does neither. He simply holds there, silent and presumably thoughtful, though Taako still doesn't look back at him. "...it's good to see you again."

The words jolt through Taako in a way that he'd never expected anything could, leaving him feeling dizzy and unbalanced, uncertain just how to react. He'd feared — _expected_ — that Kravitz wouldn't even hesitate or give him a chance to speak, that he'd immediately go full reaper and deal with him as he would anyone stupid enough to turn themselves into a lich and then summon an emissary of the Raven Queen. But this, this...softness, this regret, the feelings that echo within him in a way he's not accustomed to and isn't sure how to deal with, this he can't just shrug off, or...really even deal with properly.

He feels the betrayal of tears welling in his eyes and shakes his head once, blinking hard and pulling away from Kravitz's touch; he doesn't deserve that, doesn't deserve _any_ of this, not ever, but especially not now. "I shouldn't have—" he begins, but has to stop before he can finish speaking. Maybe he _shouldn't_ have summoned Kravitz, maybe he _should_ have called upon the Celestial Plane instead, _any_ other plane, but he knows deep down that there was really only one option for him. Only one person he wanted to see so much that he'd be willing and able to tear a hole through the very fabric of reality to make it happen.

Before he can fill the space of their silence again _something_ explodes somewhere behind him, the sound unexpected enough that Taako half-turns back toward it even as he hears Lucas wailing something about his lab. Maybe that was the lab, maybe it wasn't, all he can see is light and smoke, but he barely has time to see anything at all before Lup speaks up again and the tone of her voice has him immediately reaching for his wand and pivoting back toward her, Lucas completely forgotten.

"Uh, we’ve got a bigger problem here," she says, and Taako follows her gaze to the _fucking massive statue_ that had somehow managed to approach while he'd been otherwise occupied. ( _Great idea to have a serious conversation in the middle of the fuckin' apocalypse, wasn't it?_ he demands of himself, irritated.) "I don’t know how to kill that!"

But Kravitz steps forward, steps _in front of him_ in a gesture that looks almost protective, his scythe forming just in time for his hand to close about it. "I think I know some folks who can help," he observes, almost dryly, then glances over his shoulder back at Taako again; almost involuntarily Taako meets his eyes and finds his hands clenching into fists to deny the impulse to reach toward him. He can't. He just...can't.

Maybe Kravitz doesn't notice, because he just keeps talking, even as a hand reaches up through the sapphire circle beneath his feet— a hand made of a multitude of souls that shift and move within the shape they form, and Taako _knows_ that hand. He'd seen it before, or something much like it, back in Lucas's lab, and his heart leaps in his chest. "You remember those wayward souls I’ve been imprisoning?" Kravitz asks, with an almost proud little quirk to his smile. "Well, I’m giving them some time off for good behavior."

The hand swipes almost negligently at the black-opal hand of the Hunger's Judge as it descends, then flattens itself against the ground to pull the rest of its body free of the Astral Plane. And there's certainly a lot of body there to pull, for this time Legion is much, much larger than it had been on that incredibly bizarre Candlenights evening, enough that Taako dizzily wonders if Kravitz had emptied _the entire fucking Stockade_ for this.

For him?

No. No, of course not.

The idea is ridiculous. After all, how could he have known that Taako would give him a portal to this plane? Kravitz must have just been preparing to fight the incursion on the Astral Plane itself, so this was...just taking advantage of the situation.

But still, even as the screaming mass of souls engages the colossal form of the Judge, driving it back and away from the portal Taako had created, Kravitz is still looking at him. Still with that expression he can't or doesn't want to read, for the way it makes him feel so unsteady and uncertain where normally he can pretend to be so... _Taako_. He doesn't _do_ uncertain, not where anyone else can see, at least.

"I need to keep an eye on them, and...I need to shepherd this world’s dead but—" As Kravitz leans on his scythe his expression grows briefly more serious, the angles of his face looking a little sharper in the shadows of the darkness overhead. "After. We're going to need to talk."

The weight redoubles in Taako's chest, but he only nods, flicking his braid behind his shoulder with a nonchalant gesture and a mental note of _gotta find where my hat went_. "For sure, for sure, gotta— there's a lot to do, gotta save the world and, y'know, everyone in it, 'cause that's what Taako do. Right?"

Kravitz opens his mouth to respond but pauses, his gaze shifting to a point just past Taako's shoulder, and he glances back to see the spectral form of his sister drifting closer. "What's up, Ghost Rider?" she asks, flipping a casual sort of salute toward the reaper, and Taako can only envy the way _she's_ managing to pull off the attitude he's spectacularly failed to imitate for the last few minutes.

When he looks back at Kravitz the reaper has resumed his skeletal form, his scythe held in both hands now, but at least he's still standing in the same place. "You, uh, haven't met my sister before," Taako says, unconsciously reaching out with one hand for hers, just as he'd done hundreds, thousands of times before, and for an instant can feel the peculiarly soft brush of his fingers passing through hers. At least he always has her now, no matter what else happens, no matter what— no, never mind. Not now.

One skeletal hand lifts in a sort of half-hearted wave in response to Lup, and the scarlet pinpoints of his eyes return to Taako's face. "Be careful. And...and we'll talk, _after_ we've saved the world."

"Deal." Taako can barely form the word with a mouth gone drier than the Woven Gulch, but he nods, he stays standing, he watches as Kravitz follows after the form of Legion and he doesn't waver. Not at all.

Not visibly.

"You okay, bro?" Lup asks softly, one mostly-insubstantial hand coming to rest against his shoulder.

Taako shakes his head once, then clears his throat and forces a smile onto his lips. "We've got a fuckton of work to do, Lulu, and even more ass to kick. Let's get to it."

 _And maybe_ , a small voice whispers within him, _maybe, if I don't get through this, it'll be for the best in the end._

Another part of him utterly rejects that, though, refuses to consider it, for no matter how small, there might be some hope, especially now that he has his other half with him once more.

Ignoring the conflict raging within himself, the ups and downs and fluctuations that make him feel a little fuzzy, a little uncomfortable within his own skin, Taako just sets his jaw and stalks off in search of his hat.

He has to fight. And he's going to _win_.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me over on tumblr as [ramavoite](http://ramavoite.tumblr.com)!


End file.
